AITO shocked at Tucan collapse as members seek to weather the Covid storm

AITO Executive Director Martyn Sumners has said members are continuing to ‘weather the storm’ of Covid as the organisation faced up to the collapse of long-standing tour operator Tucan Travel.

Tucan, an AITO member, yesterday ceased trading with immediate effect as the pandemic continued to ravage the travel industry.

Begbies Traynor has been appointed administrators, with Tucan expected to formally enter administration on or before 16 February.

Sumners said the collapse of Tucan had come as a shock.

"Matt Gannan [Tucan’s Chief Executive] had been in business for 34 years – since 1987 – and joined AITO 11 years ago. He was on Council from 2016 – coming up for five years – and was thus a Director of AITO until today," he said.

"Matt put a lot of effort into finding solutions for AITO members while he was on Council, and we shall miss his input considerably.

"The news came as a bit of a shock."

Asked about the general health of members, Sumners added: "The feedback from members is that people are weathering the storm, but we don’t know how long it will last. It’s a case of keeping our fingers crossed." 

According to Begbies, Tucan had fallen into ‘unprecedented financial difficulties’.

Around 850 bookings will be affected, while nine staff have lost their jobs.

The company operated group itineraries in the Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe and organised  bespoke tours in Latin America and Asia.

Tucan had suspended operations in March last year, but with the outlook for 2021 looking so grim, the decision was made to call it a day.

Its Australian divsion has also ceased trading. 

Gannan said with so many customers wanting refunds, and with smaller overseas hotels and service providers unable repay tour operators, there was no way out.

"This is a truly devastating day for the business and our thoughts are with our loyal, long-serving staff who will be losing their jobs," he said.

"We have had to make difficult decisions to keep the business operational throughout the Covid crisis, including many staff redundancies and suspending tour operations in March last year.

"But with little prospect of a return to normal international leisure travel on the horizon, the challenge has sadly proven too great and, with a heavy heart, the decision was taken to place the company into administration.

"We understand this will be a worrying time for customers with existing bookings and would urge them to contact the administrators to discuss how they can make a claim against any monies they may have already paid to the business.

"I would like to thank all clients, suppliers and staff for their support over many years and hope that all of you get to enjoy travelling again in the future."

The company, which was licenced to carry 1000 passengers, said on its website that ‘no one could have predicted’ the impact of Covid or the tumultuous affect it would have on travel.

The collapse of Tucan is the second AITO member to fall victim to Covid. The only previous failure was Cities Direct, in September.

Begbies Traynor Partner Gareth Prince said: "It is always sad to see a once thriving business succumb to administration, especially when there are job losses involved.

"The travel industry has borne the brunt of the pandemic and despite taking a number of difficult decisions to mitigate the worst impacts of the crisis, the company has been unable to withstand overwhelming financial pressure."

He said all customers with bookings will be contacted by 5 February. 

ABTA said the majority of holidays sold by Tucan were non-flight inclusive packages and were protected by the Association of Bonded Travel Organisers Trust (ABTOT)

Flight-inclusive packages were also protected under the ABTOT ATOL Franchise scheme.

ABTA said it is not handling any claims in relation to the Tucan failure.